The Spartans grind out a 70-58 victory against the Gophers in a 61-possession game. Unofficial box score. MSU’s performance today deserves that oft-used moniker of “workmanlike.” Outside of a brief Gopher spurt to close MSU’s lead to one point going into halftime, the Spartans played with intensity for 40 minutes, slowly building a lead that [...]
Archive for December, 2008
Minnesota Game Recap (12/31/08)
Posted in game recap, tagged kalin lucas, marquise gray, minnesota, raymar morgan on December 31, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Pregame Reading
Posted in links, tagged delvon roe, isaiah dahlman on December 31, 2008 | Comments Off
Roe questionable for MSU-Gophers I’ll be really surprised if he plays. Michigan State @ Minnesota – TDG Preview Daily Gopher says Hoffarber knocking down some 3′s and Iverson defending Suton are keys to Gopher victory. #21 Gophers vs. #10 Michigan State: The most important game in a decade Well, for you guys, I guess. From [...]
Minnesota Game Preview
Posted in game preview, tagged minnesota on December 30, 2008 | 10 Comments »
A Terrific Tip-Off You couldn’t have asked for a better game to start the conference season than Illinois’ 71-67 overtime win over Purdue tonight (in roughly a 76-possession game). This was an extremely hard fought game that went back and forth throughout, featured multiple moments of drama late in the game, and provided 5 minutes [...]
Big Ten Conference Season Preview, Tempo-Free-Aerial-Style
Posted in stats analysis, tagged big ten on December 30, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Now that this blog is over a year old, we can establish traditions simply by doing exactly what we did the previous year. And, last year, I previewed the Big Ten conference season by producing a tempo-free aerial based on the 11 Big Ten teams’ nonconference efficiency ratings. To review: Offensive efficiency is points scored [...]
Monday Night Rankings Update
Posted in links, rankings update, tagged big ten on December 29, 2008 | Comments Off
Rankings Update Well, look at that: We’re a top-ten team again. According to the writers, at least. The coaches have us at #15. The bad news is that I’m not convinced we really are a top-ten team at this point. The good news is that the 9-2 nonconference mark (with the Kansas game pending) is [...]
Delvon Roe Update: Ankle Edition
Posted in news, tagged delvon roe, injuries on December 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I had really hoped we were done with the Delvon Roe injury updates . . . The LSJ is reporting (via Joe Rexrode’s blog) that Roe hasn’t practiced the last two days: Coach Tom Izzo said Roe is questionable as of today for Wednesday’s Big Ten opener at Minnesota and would be considered doubtful if [...]
Coffee Talk: What's that? Another football game?
Posted in coffee talk, tagged capital one bowl, football on December 28, 2008 | 7 Comments »
It’s now been 36 days since the Michigan State football team last played a game. Since then: The MSU basketball team has played nine games. The Detroit Lions have played (and lost) six games. Barack Obama has announced 25 cabinet-level appointees and key advisors. Over two feet of snow has fallen and subsequently melted in [...]
Oakland Game Recap (12/27/08)
Posted in game recap, tagged chris allen, goran suton, oakland, raymar morgan on December 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The Spartans knock out the Grizzlies 82-66 in a 65-possession game. Official box score. For once, I got the keys to the game right: rebounding and 3-point shooting. MSU out-rebounded Oakland at both ends of the court and knocked down 11 of 20 three-point attempts (55.0%), resulting in the four-factor graph below: Stats by StatSheet.com [...]
Oakland Game Preview
Posted in game preview, tagged oakland on December 26, 2008 | 5 Comments »
5:00 Saturday. The Palace of Auburn Hills. Fox Sports Detroit. Oakland enters this game with a record of 8-6, including a 1-1 mark in Summit League play. The Grizzlies’ best win was a 82-79 overtime win over Oregon in the second game of the season. Last Saturday, they lost to Michigan 89-76, in a game that was [...]
Holiday Hiatus
Posted in site news on December 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’m going to try to get at least a brief preview of the Oakland game up on Friday. But, beyond that, I don’t anticipate any new content being posted until Sunday or Monday. In the meantime, Fighting with a Vim was nice enough to wrap up all the best Spartan highlights from the last year [...]
